A Cake and An Animal Orgy...

So it was Olivia's 10th birthday this past Sunday and it was nice and low key. Olivia and her little friend went to see Indiana Jones and then we all went to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. Later we came back to the house to have the cake that I made with some Ice Cream. Overall I was quite happy with how the cake turned out. Instead of the strawberry filling I put buttercream and coconut. It was good. This cake took me 3 hours to decorate, from start to finish. I applied some pink pearl dust to the pink accents and I think that I pulled it off pretty good. I just dabbed it on where I wrote happy birthday because I didn't want to smear the writing that I had previously done. I was pretty tired after the whole cake thing. I didn't think that I would want to try some but I did and as always, found places for improvement. Everyone else thought the cake was flawless and tasted great, and I did too, but as usual the person making it always finds the little things that could be better and I guess that is always a good thing.

In about a week or so when the kids are on vacation I will do another cake but not using fondant, only buttercream so that I can try some piping techniques. It will be quiet so I will be able to do it without interruption.

Later on that night when Cisco and I went upstairs after getting the girls settled we found my babies doing the unimaginable. I have a firm belief that animals come to life when everyone else is asleep or away (like in Toy Story), so I think that these nasty little things got caught in mid Orgy. And I thought things were pretty normal around our house. I hope this is only with my babies and no one else's. :)

~M

Cake Walk...

So it is that time of year again, Olivia's birthday. This year I am happy to inform you that I am actually involved. I guess it's good news. I wish I had the easy part that her aunts have, shopping for the stuff and doing the running around. But, last year Olivia had asked me to make her cake so that is my sole responsibility. After several run throughs and several ideas that just didn't pan out. I have come up with this little creation...which was thankfully approved by her majesty, you should note that there are 10 little hearts at the top which I am planning on putting the candles in, I was quite worried. I think I spent a whole at least 2 whole days worth of time on this cake and the conception...EVERYTHING!!! It has been quite an experience I must say that though.

Usually Olivia plans her big day with her aunts, everything from the theme to the party favors and the cake. They get the cake and do everything and then Cisco and I just show up. But this year Olivia wanted a sleep over with her girlfriends at the house and for me to do the cake. I was quite excited that I was going to be involved. Olivia asked if I would make little cakes for her class and without thinking about all the man hours that I would have to spend on them I said yes. So two days ago I started making the cakes and last night I began decorating them so that we could take them to school today. I think I spent 7 hours doing them last night, just to decorate them. I nearly dropped some of them, but I saved them. I swear if I would have dropped them I would have needed therapy.So by the time I finished I piped O's on the top for "Olivia" and some dots and applied the fondant. I was quite proud of this little feat. Now I only have to do the cake for Sunday and I am finished. I can say that without a shadow of a doubt that if I see any sugary dessert any time soon I will turn and toss my cookies. I have two days to rest from the kitchen which is nice, in that time I can clean the house and prepare it for an invasion of girls.

~M

Would You Rather...

As I was driving to work this morning and listening to the radio I heard a conversation about 5 things to do on a first date (for ladies). As I was listening to this I was remembering what it was like to go on first dates, when I did go on first dates...which seems like forever ago.

I remember how excited I would get when I would give my phone number out or he would get mine, all the anticipation of wondering if he would call and when. Back in the days when cell phones weren't as affordable as they are now, I would forward my calls to make sure I wouldn't miss his. There were the usual first date jitters as well as the awkward silences and the inevitable good night kiss or hug, depending on how good the date went and if you thought there might be a second.

As is the rituals of courting you try to keep on your best behavior and you dress to the nines, shave everyday because you never know, and try to be yourself (at least to a point).

As time goes by and you decide that you will stick this one through and see how far it goes you let little things slip as you begin to know each other better and become more comfortable around each other. You love that person for themselves and not all the other crap that you were so worried about in the beginning.

So what would you rather have, years of happiness with that one person or giving it all up just to have those first couple weeks of excitement. I know there are people out there that would pick the last one.

I know that I will never really have that same feeling as I did on my first date with Cisco, but the anticipation for something more is always there. A note on the vanity mirror in the morning, flowers brought to me in bed, rare occasions when we are able to go out without the kids (including trips), and just being able to talk for hours without interruption if we chose to. I think that I miss that feeling of courting a little bit sometimes, just the excitement from anticipation and the butterflies that follow, but when I think about what I have now it's so much better. I get to come home to two kids who love me unconditionally, shaved legs or not, a man that knows my flaws as well as his own and loves me regardless.

I'm just so happy for taking that first step with our little first date, I didn't think he would call the number on the paper, but I'm glad you did baby.

I love you guys more than life itself.

~M

Hot Babies and Baseball...

So as all of you know yesterday was Mothers Day! So happy Mommies day to all of you out there. I was greeted in bed that morning to Anthony snuggling me and then about 1/2 an hour later to Olivia and Cisco coming in with breakfast on a tray and flowers and cards. I can definately say that I was feeling the love.

On Friday I got tickets for Anthony, Olivia and I to go to the 51's baseball game. I thought that it would be a fun little outing. A great surprise was that Cisco was able to get the night off early and come and join us around the bottom of the 3rd.





It was a really fun game, what was nice was that the team won and we got to watch some fireworks at the end of the game. It was a lot of fun. The weather was great also, a little breezy, and not too hot...not yet anyway.

On Mother's Day I wanted to to the the outlet shops at State line. There were quite a few things that I saw that I wanted at Sur La Table and thought that they just might have the same items at the Williams Sonoma outlet. Well, they had some of the things but not many, so that led us to driving back into town and going to the shops at Planet Hollywood, back to the Sur La Table store. We had gone to this store a week before so that I could let Cisco in on the things that I wanted, just in case he felt the desire to go there and surprise me with them on the morning of Mother's Day. That wasn't the case, but he did take me there. Well on the way there we were waiting at a red light, (on Tropicana and LV Blvd.) and if you live or have lived in this town for even a month or a couple of days you will know that there are driving billboards all over the streets as well as stationary ones letting people in on having escorts come to your hotel room. Well I try not to say anything about these things to the kids and sometimes they see them and say ewww and then other times they laugh at eachother about the girl with her butt cheeks showing. Well yesterday there was a driving billboard waiting for a light and Anthony saw it. I saw it right away and was hoping that no one under the age of 18 saw it either, but Anthony and Olivia both did.

Well Anthony started reading it, and said..."Hot Babies direct to you, what are hot babies? Are they on fire?" And of course Cisco and I started laughing pretty hard. We both wondered if him not reading wonderfully was a good thing at that point or not. I mean it didn't really get into details like I feared because we were all laughing so hard about him saying babies instead of the babes. It was hillarious. I made sure to take a picture so that it could be referenced in this little post, but I thought it was one of the funniest things, besides Olivia asking who wanted to go to the Adult Superstore a few months ago. It's things like this that seem to put the cherry on a mom's day.

~M

Ode To An Oven...

Oh bearer of heavenly goodness...I am so happy that you are just now returning to my life. I am so happy that you have come to bring joy into our home once again. So many times I have heard the cries of the children yearning for the yummy baked goodness of treats or bubbly dinners fresh out of your womb, and now that dream has come true.....I FINALLY GOT MY FREAKIN' OVEN!

I am so excited! It arrived on Monday and I christened it with Lasagna and made a Pecan Pie. Last night I decided to polish up my cake baking skills and lets just say they were a little rusty. Just a little bit mind you. For those of you that did not know of my oven sadness, I have been without one for nearly two years. I was always using the damn thing. I have never really known an oven to go out before. I mean my mom's is older than ours was and it still worked, but low and behold my bad fortune to have a finicky one in my presence. Oh well though it's over and I am back to using it all the time. I have to pick up many supplies to fill up the pantry so that I may resume my cake and treat baking skills. They have been put a damper on since I didn't have an oven to use. When I was hard up during the holiday's I would use my mom's. However, if you have never had to truck all of your materials as well as the finished project 15 minutes away then you will not be able to appreciate my aggravation over the whole ordeal. Not to mention trying to work in someone else's kitchen. They don't have the same things you do, so you are not used to their hand held mixer as opposed to your standing mixer. Or the fact that you don't know where every little thing is so that it is only a mere whistle away.

So yay! Heaven has returned to my little Kitchen!

~M

And So It's Time To Start Over...Again...

And so it begins...I have registered for the fall. I didn't go at all last year, just because I think I needed a break as well as there was so much going on with the kids. But now that I am the first one to sign up for anything I will make sure to let the rest of the clan know, so that our children are not haphazardly thrown into activities without wondering where they should go after...I think this includes me as well.

I am excited about going back, I think because I missed two semesters. I will be taking my last Management class, Intermediate Algebra, Philosophy and Accounting. I am halfway done with school at CSN and I figured last night that if I go for this Semester, Spring and next fall then I will be done and I will be able to graduate in the Spring of 2010. I guess that is a good round number to end things on. Then it will be time to transfer to UNLV to finish out the next "two" years. When I was looking at my credits that I have earned yesterday it didn't feel like I had gone as far as I have. I think it is because when I take classes I load up, so that I can get it done. I haven't done too shabby yet, but I think this semester I will definitely need to see a tutor to help with the accounting and math aspect of this whole thing.

The only classes that I have left really are math classes, which sucks because I'm not all that great at math and it takes so much for me to finally grasp an idea that is trying to be taught. I miss taking the usual writing classes, I think it is because I am good at them. I think after I post this I will go onto UNLV's site and see what classes I will need to finish out the second part of this little degree that I'm trying for.

~M